Music from the heart
by scribblesofdreams
Summary: The School of Rock kids are entering their junior year of high school. A competition brings in a new member into the group, adding more laughs, good times and even a little bit of love. Please rr!
1. Default Chapter

Introduction

Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with School of Rock.

(I need this intro so you guys know what's going on in the story and so it won't bring up some weird questions.)

Okay, this is my first fic for School of Rock. Let me give you the run-down on what's going to go on in this fic:

A new girl named Samantha Morton is a new student to the School of Rock kid's school, Horace Green High School. She grew up in northern California but she was born in Hawaii. She moves to Horace Green High that's in New Jersey; New Jersey fits in with a part of the story. It probably isn't based in New Jersey, but for my fic it's easier for them to be in New Jersey. So if it's wrong, sorry, but it works with my ideas.

1. I made up the whole Horace Green High School part. It makes it easier to say that they go to a high school. Besides, it'd be weird to have them go to another school with a different name, or at least for me it would be.

2. I'm making this be in New Jersey. I'm not sure if this is actually where it was placed, but it kind of fits with my story line so the band is from New Jersey.

3. Not all the things in this fic apply to what's in the actual story like the movie. I had to change some things around. I gave some of them family members that weren't mentioned in the movie, and made up names for their parents. This is like them being in New Jersey and their high school name.

4. When things are in italics that means that they're not really saying it aloud, more like thinking it to themselves.

5. I do use slang in this fic, so don't mind it if things are misspelled or you see words that you don't know.

6. Mary Sue…okay. Yes this girl eventually does end up with one of the guys, but it isn't a really strong Mary Sue story. If that makes sense.


	2. Let's get it started

Disclaimer: I do not own School of Rock…sadly. Borrowing. I also do not own any of the song references or music artists mentioned throughout my story. If they sound familiar to you then they're not my own original ideas.

Chapter 1

It was just a few days into the new school year and all of the kids in School of Rock were entering their junior year of high school. They were all psyched about this year, because this was the year that they could all travel out of state to go to competitions with their band. There was one competition that was coming up right after Thanksgiving, and during the summer Dewey was planning on taking the band up there for it. This meant that they needed to keep up their school work and focus or else they wouldn't be allowed to play in the band. It was the first weekend since school started, and the gang was at their local hangout in town, Danny's,a fast food restaurant.

"Hey guys!" Zack came running up to Freddy, Katie, and Summer. "What's up?" he said, taking a seat next to Katie on their table.

"Nothin' much." Replied Summer. "But I do know one thing. We better get working soon for this competition this year." She said, taking a sip from her soda. "Did you guys start on some new material?" she asked them.

"Yep, we're on it." Freddy replied, drumming his fingers on the edge of the table.

"Well good. 'Cause we definitely need it. Our old stuff is just so bland." She said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. She looked and saw all three of them giving her a look of annoyance. "I'm mean, uh," she paused. "It's just better to have new material just in case our old stuff isn't…right for this competition." She said quickly.

Katie grinned at Summer and said, "Uh, right. Well, you can criticize our music once **you** start to help write it."

"Okay, sorry guys. I just think we should start working on it soon." She said finally. "It's kind of sad that Alicia and Marta aren't here anymore. It's gonna be tough this year…" she faded. They all sat in a moment of silence to remember their friends. Both Alicia and Marta move during that summer right before school started.

"Well, besides this whole band thing, you guys hear that rumor about that new girl that's comin' to school?" Zack asked, leaning into the table. "Ya know, that girl who's like good at everything. She's been all over the world, met so many famous people, she's like the ultimate student!" he said in amazement.

Katie turned towards Summer. "Oh yeah, I heard about that. She's like the best student ever! Good grades, great at sports, and she can do the whole music thing too." Katie said, impressed about this mystery student.

"Well, maybe she can sing, and join our band." Freddy said. It was sad to have Alicia move to Georgia with her family, as well as having Marta go and live with her aunt on the west coast. It was just Tomika left to be their lead singer of the band, but they all were going to try and make it work.

"All I know is that she's supposed to be something special." Zack said, finishing the conversation. They all hung out at Danny's for a while more until they all decided to head home. Summer drove Katie home since they didn't live too far from each other. Zack and Freddy actually lived at opposite sides of the same street, so they got to know each other more since the band was put together.

"So, what do you think about this new girl Freddy?" Zack asked as they walked home.

"I don't know, I mean I haven't even met her." He replied. "And why are you so interested in her anyway?" he asked Zack.

"Because, if she really is as good as everyone says she is, then maybe she can help us with the band. If she can sing, she can really help us this year with the whole battle and all. Don't you think?"

"Well, I guess. If she can sing, and if she can sing that well to be in our band." He trailed off as they approached one of the homes on their street. It had 2 moving trucks outside with men walking back and forth between the trucks and the house. Some were carrying furniture, and others were looking over a paper, pointing to different areas of the house. "I guess that's the new girls house huh?" Freddy said as they both stopped on the sidewalk.

Freddy and Zack both looked at each other. "Yeah, guess we got a new neighbor." They stood there and watched the men unload some more furniture for while. They continued on to their homes until they reached Freddy's.

"Well, looks like she lives closer to me." He said once he got to his driveway. "I'll check ya later Mooneyham." Freddy said.

"See ya Spazzy." He replied as they slapped each others hand. Zack continued down the street as Freddy turned up his driveway to go in his house.

"Hey mom." Freddy said as he closed the front door behind him. He took his jacket off and draped it over the couch that was in their living room. He walked into the kitchen where he heard his mom and sister talking.

"Hey honey." His mom replied.

"What up Freddy." His sister Stephanie said as she gave her brother a fist punch. "You saw the movers a couple houses down?" she asked him, following him with her eyes as he walked over to the refrigerator.

"Yeah, it's this new girl at school." He replied, grabbing a pitcher of juice and closing the door. "Zack was talking about it today at Danny's." he told them. "She's supposed to be like this all-star student."

Stephanie turned around towards their mom. "Oh yeah, I heard that too. Emily said that she's super good at everything at school! Sports, school work, she's nice, friendly, she's like some kind of goddess or something." She said in awe of this new girl.

"Wow, if she's this good, I hope one of you becomes friends with her." Mrs. Jones told them.

Stephanie wasn't quite sure why her mom said that. "Why, I don't get it?"

"Maybe all of her good qualities will rub off on you two!" she said as she started to laugh.

"Haha, thanks mom. But I know one thing she's not good at." Freddy told them, putting his cup of juice down. "She's not better at drums than I am!" he said, standing in a superhero pose.

It was Sunday night, so they had an early dinner once their dad came home. Freddy and Stephanie had to go to bed early since they had school the next day. Since it was only going to be their second week of school, their mom wanted to make sure that they started the year off with a good start. When Freddy said goodnight and went into his room, Zack and Lawrence called on a three-way line to talk with Freddy about this new girl. They decided that whoever would meet her first would ask her about her singing. Since it was only a rumor, they weren't sure if she really was all these things that they heard. They agreed to meet the band outside the school's entrance door to make a plan on how to meet this new girl. They were all anxious to meet this new girl that was the talk of the school. Once Freddy hung up the phone, he went directly to sleep, thinking about what this new girl would be like. But the only way he'd find out was to go to school that next day to see for himself.


	3. Opposites Attract

Chapter 2

The next day, they all met in front of the school before the bell to start homeroom rang. Zack and Freddy were there first. Then Summer and Katie showed up. Slowly the rest of them came to school to think of a plan. They decided that they'd first find out more about her, if those rumors were true. If they were, one of them would go and ask her about it, then invite her to one of their practices. From there, it was all up in the air, seeing that they only had 10 minutes to think of a plan. The bell rang so they all rushed inside to get to their homerooms. Once they all got settled, there was the talk between their classmates about this new girl. Freddy had to go to his locker before he made it to his homeroom. But on his way back, he bumped into someone as he turned the corner to get to his homeroom.

"Oh, gosh I'm so sorry!" A girl with long, black, wavy hair said.

"Oh no, I wasn't watching where I was going." Freddy said as he bent down to pick up her dropped books.

This girl with a soft soothing voice reached to pick up more of her things. "Thanks." She said. "It's my first day and I'm kinda lost." She said, as she collected most of her belongings. "Hi, I'm Samantha. Samantha Morton." She said as she stood up, fixing her clothes.

"Hey, I'm Freddy Jones." He said as he too stood up to hand her the books in his hand. Once Freddy looked up to hand her the books, they both froze, gazing into each others eyes. "_Wow, this must be that new girl everyone was talking about." _He thought to himself, staring into her eyes. "_She's really pretty, and to think I almost missed meeting her."_

"_Whoa, he's cute." _She smiled to herself. "_And polite, now this guy has class._" She broke this awkward moment of silence between them by sticking her hand out. "I'm Samantha." She repeated, not sure if he heard her the first time.

Doing the same as Sam, he told her his name again as well. "I'm Freddy." When they shook hands, they both felt a spark rush through one hand to the other. "Oh, here's your books." He said, smiling at the fact he was still carrying them. She grabbed them from him, letting out a small laugh as she did this.

"Thanks, first days always start off rocky for me." He told him. Another moment of silence blew through the air between them.

"Well, uh," Freddy began to say. "I better get to homeroom." He told her.

"Yeah, me too." She replied.

"I guess I'll see you later?" he asked, hoping that she would say yes.

"Definitely." She replied with a smile. She turned to walk in the opposite direction, smiling the biggest smile she ever smiled once he couldn't see her face. "_That was so weird." _She thought to herself as she turned another corner. "_I hope I do see him again though."_

"_Man, that was so strange. I mean, I didn't think I'd meet her first. And I didn't think I'd feel this way when I met her. Gees, I don't even know her yet, but I feel that I really want to." _He thought as he walked in late to his homeroom.

"Well, thank you for gracing us with your presence Mr. Jones." His homeroom teacher Mrs. Cummings said to him as he took his seat.

"Sorry." He said quietly, taking his backpack off and putting it on his desk. As the morning announcements went on and everyone watched the TV to hear what was for lunch, he gazed off into space.

Katie noticed Freddy go into a daze. "Yo, Freddy, you okay?" she asked him. "Freddy?" she said again, waving her hand in front of his face. He finally came back to reality in a few seconds.

"Huh, oh yeah. I'm fine." He told her, shaking his head to get back into the school mood.

Meanwhile, Sam was trying to find her way to her homeroom. She finally reached her homeroom with a big bright sign on the door that read "Welcome to a new school year!!". She opened the door as quietly as she could and slipped into the room. Half of the students in the class just stared at this new girl walking in, the other half started to whisper with each other about her. She walked directly to her homeroom teacher to introduce herself. After the announcements were done, the teacher, Mrs. Park turned the TV off and walked back over to Sam's side.

"Class," she began to say. "This is our new student, Samantha Morton." She said happily. Everyone stopped chatting once her name was said. "Samantha joins us from California, but she previously lived in Hawaii!" she told the class with excitement. With this new information, more commotion went on between the students.

"Hi." Sam said, trying not to seem incredibly suspicious of why everyone was whispering to each other.

"Now, I want you all to welcome Sam to Horace Green." She said, smiling to Sam. "You can take a seat next to Tomika" she said, pointing to the only open seat in the room.

"Mahalo." Sam replied. Mrs. Park looked at Sam with confusion when Sam replied, "That's 'thank you' in Hawaiian." She smiled as Mrs. Park nodded and smiled back. She took her seat as the whole class watched her sit down in her seat.

She nervously watched the whole class follow her to her seat. "What's up?" was the only thing she could think of saying.

"Don't mind them." Tomika said, leaning over to Sam's desk. "Hi, I'm Tomika." She said, shaking Sam's hand.

"Yeah, and I'm Zack." He said, calling her attention to the seat in back of her. "Welcome to Horace Green." He said as most of the class turned away from their new student.

"So, can you guys explain why everyone looked at me like I was an alien just now?" she wondered.

"Well, some rumors were going around school about you." Zack told her as she looked at him as if he were insane.

She was surprised at hearing this and asked Zack, "Rumors? Like what?"

"Like you're the best at everything!" he said excitedly.

"Really now?" she asked in disbelief. "Who said that?"

"Mostly everyone. But I wouldn't listen to a thing you hear at this school. Mostly everyone just loves to talk." Tomika chimed in. The three of them talked for a while until the bell rang to go to their first period. Zack ran out of the classroom to get to his first class that he had with Summer. He quickly sat down next to her and began to tell her what had just happened.

"She's in my homeroom with Tomika." He said to her. "She seems really cool, and I think all those things we heard about her are true." He told her.

As impatient as Summer is, she asked him urgently about this new girl. "So, did you ask about her singing?"

"Uh…" he paused. "No. I forgot." He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Summer looked at Zack as if he was a complete idiot.

"Well, find out!" she told him forcefully. He nodded as the bell to start class rang. After first period was over, Zack hustled to his locker where he'd meet up with Freddy to go to their second class together, AP U.S. History.

"Hey Zack." Freddy said as Zack opened his locker. "So, how was first period?" he said, making conversation as he took his U.S. History book out of his own locker.

Zack quickly opened his locker and said, "Great. Guess what?"

"What?" Freddy said, not wanting to actually guess what Zack was going to tell him.

"I met that new girl." He said, closing his locker and turning towards Freddy.

"Really? Me too." He said, with a subtle smile on his face.

"How? When'd you meet her?" he asked.

"Right before homeroom. I ran into her on my way there." He told him. They began to walk towards their class, making their way through the crowd of students filling the hallways. "Her name's Samantha right?" he said to Zack.

"Yeah, she seems pretty cool." He replied to Freddy.

Freddy smiled to himself, thinking about his new girl he just met. "Yeah, she is." Freddy said in a 'dreamy' tone of voice. Zack noticed this, and squinted his eyes as he turned towards Freddy. They both walked into their classroom and greeted their teacher. Zack sat one desk behind Freddy, so he moved his desk closer to Freddy's. Two seconds before the bell rang, the last person walked in and closed the door behind them. Freddy was taking his notebook out of his binder as he saw a girl with black hair out of the corner of his eye. He recognized that hair and quickly looked up to see Samantha standing at the front of the class with their teacher.

"Everyone, this is Samantha Morton. She will be joining our class." He announced as he gathered everyone's attention. "You can take a seat behind Carlos." He directed her to her seat. As she sat down, all that Freddy could do was follow her with his eyes as she sat down next to him. She settled down and got her things out of her bag. She saw someone out of the corner of her eye staring at her, so she turned to see who it was.

"Hey, Freddy right?" she said, happy to see him again.

"Yeah. You're in AP History?" he asked, now believing that at least one of those stupid rumors were true.

Sam smiled since she loved any kind of history class. "Yeah, I guess history's just something I'm good at." Freddy and Sam kept smiling at each other while Mr. Cook started his lecture on Paul Reverie's famous ride. Zack couldn't help but noticed that neither one of them stopped looking at each other. From knowing Freddy for more than 5 years, he could tell that by the look on Freddy's face, Freddy liked this girl. Class continued with Mr. Cook's lecture and in no time the class was done. The bell rang and about 30 students rushed out of the classroom to get to their next class.

"So, uh, I guess we might see you at lunch?" Freddy asked, stumbling to get his books in his backpack. "I mean, if you wanna sit with us…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, sure. I'll look for you guys." Sam said. Zack waved Sam goodbye and Freddy gave her the biggest smile he could. Once she left the room, Zack and Freddy got all of their things together to get to their next class.

Zack quickly stood up to move in front of Freddy to face him. "Dude?! What was up with that?"

"What do you mean?" he said, pretending not to know what he was talking about.

"You so know what I mean. You like her don't you?" he said plainly.

"What? Me? Freddy Jones like the new girl?" he said as if it was absurd for such a thing to happen. But Zack could tell that he really did like Sam by the look in his eyes and the way he smiled at her. It was no lie that Freddy was interested in this new girl. Was it instinct, and Freddy knew that she'd be great for him, maybe it was just a first impression of Sam that Freddy liked. Or was it really love at first sight?


	4. Ordinary Day

Chapter 3

Once the bell for lunch rang, Freddy quickly raced to his locker to put his things away. The whole time he made his way to the cafeteria he was hoping that Sam would be there and that she'd sit with them. He stood in the line and met up with Tomika. They both got their lunches and walked over to their usual table. By the time they got there they saw that the table was full, except for their two empty seats. Freddy noticed a new seat was added to the table, the seat that Sam was sitting in. He smiled to himself with relief as he sat down in his seat across from Sam.

"Hey guys." Summer greeted Tomika and Freddy. "'Bout time you guys showed up." She said. "Well, I already introduced our new friend Sam to everyone." Summer said, smiling at Sam. "You know Tomika and Zack from homeroom." Summer announced. "But this is Freddy." She said.

Freddy quickly turned to look at Sam. "Yeah, we know each other." He realized that his smile was different from all those Jones' famous smirks he gave to everyone and quickly turned away as he blushed.

"Uh-huh." Summer said, smirking towards Freddy. She caught that smile that Freddy gave to Sam just before he turned away, and she knew that something was up between Freddy and Sam.

To break the silence Sam started to say something. "We ran into each other this morning." Sam told them, knowing that Freddy was blushing. "And we're in AP U.S. History together." She told them.

"So." Katie began to say. "You're from Hawaii?" she asked, very interested.

"Yep, born and raised in Hawaii." She told them as they all gazed at her in awe. "But my parents moved my brother and me to California when I was 12." She said, shifting through her food with her fork.

"So are you Hawaiian?" Zack said with a terrible pronunciation.

"Uh-huh, 50." She told them. Sam smiled so brightly because of how Zack had said 'Hawaiian'.

"Whoa! You're half Hawaiian?" Lawrence said to her, shocked that he now actually knows someone who was Hawaiian.

Zack was totally impressed by this. "Damn, that's awesome." Zack commented. They all asked her so many questions about living in Hawaii and being Hawaiian. She didn't mind it since she was very proud of where she came from and who she was. The questions continued to be asked throughout the rest of the lunch period. When they were all done, they gathered in the courtyard that had a few benches to sit on. The boys all sat on the bench, while the girls sat on the grassy area right next to the benches. The bell to end lunch shortly rang after that. They moved on to their next classes for the day. Sam found that she was in a few classes with Summer, Lawrence, Katie and the rest of the gang. After school she had to go to her counselors office. Her last class, which was Honors English was close to the office, so in no time she met once again with her counselor, Ms. Baxter.

"Hi Samantha." Ms. Baxter greeted Sam as she took a seat in her office. Ms. Baxter sat back down in her seat behind the desk. "So," she began to say as she put her hands on the table. "How was your first day?"

"It was pretty good. All my classes seem okay, it's not too tough." She told her.

Ms. Baxter dug Sam's folder from underneath other papers that were stacked on her desk. "Well, with your grades from your previous schools, I'm sure that you're able to handle those advanced honors and AP classes." Ms. Baxter said, patting Sam's folder that had all her transcripts from her old schools. "Did you make any new friends today?" she asked in a very concerned voice. As a counselor she's witnessed many new students struggle to find friends once the year has already begun.

"Yeah actually." Sam told her. "I met a few people. Actually they all seemed to be friends with each other, like they've known each other for years." She explained.

"Oh, Summer Hathaway, Freddy Jones, Zackary Mooneyham, that group?" Ms. Baxter suggested.

Sam looked at her curiously. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"They've been together since elementary school."

"Wow! Figures, they seem to know each other like they're all brothers and sisters." Sam said as Ms. Baxter smiled.

Ms. Baxter was well aware of the band that Summer and the rest had. "They're a good group of kids. Very talented." She smiled, knowing their history in the music business. "Well," she said, straightening out some papers on her desk. "If there aren't any problems or concerns, you're excused." She told Sam. "Just know my door is always open for you. If you ever have a question, you're not sure of something, or just in the need to talk, come and see me okay Samantha?" she said.

"No problem." Sam replied happily. She got up from her seat and headed towards the door. She opened the door halfway and turned back around. "And you can call me Sam. Ms. Baxter." She smiled. "Thanks again. Bye." She told her, turning back around to walk out of the office.

"Goodbye Sam." Ms. Baxter said. She smiled for a moment, thinking to herself what a nice student Sam seemed to be and went back to organizing her things. After Sam's meeting with her counselor she went to her locker to get her textbooks to take home as well as dropping some of her things off. She walked home that afternoon, thinking to herself what a good day it was. She couldn't wait to go home to tell her family about it. On her way home she noticed two familiar faces sitting on one of the doorsteps of a house a couple down from hers. It was Zack and Freddy who also realized that it was Sam. The two boys waved to Sam, and Sam waved back to the both and smiled. She headed towards her front door as she could tell that Freddy was still watching her walk to her house.

"Hey mom, hey squirt." Sam said, taking her jacket off and putting her backpack and books down in the living room.

Her brother looked up and saw Sam walk in. "Hi Sam." Jesse, her younger brother was playing his gameboy advance on the couch. Sam made her way into the kitchen where her mom was preparing dinner.

"Hi honey. So, how was your first day?" she asked, putting everything down to hear about Sam's day.

"It was pretty good." She told her mom. "Classes are good, teachers seem nice, and I made a couple of friends." She told her mom who was smiling with glee.

Her mom put down the dishes she was putting away. "That's wonderful Sam! I'm glad you're going into this year with a good start." She told her, hugging Sam. Sam didn't want to tell her mom everything that went on, because she also wanted her dad to know too. So she waited until her dad got home from work to them both at dinner.

"So, how was school Sam?" her dad asked as he passed around a dish filled with corn. "You have a good day?"

"Yeah, it was good. I thought it would've been a lot worse." She said, taking a sip of her water.

"My day was good too." Jesse told them as he finished chewing his food in his mouth. "My classes are pretty good, my lockers far away from most of 'em, but I can walk. I didn't know high school would be this cool!" he exclaimed.

Confused about why he'd say school was cool she stared at him strangely. "Cool? Don't you think it's hard? A whole lot more work?" Sam asked him.

"Of course! But besides that it rocks!" he said. Sam and Jesse shared with each other and with their parents all the things that happened on their first day of school. Oddly enough, they both were excited to go back to school. Jesse liked his new friends that he made and his classes weren't as hard. Sam liked her classes and knew she'd do just fine with all the work load, even if she had advanced classes. She also wanted to hang out more with her new friends that she met. As she fell asleep all she could think about was going to school to see a certain someone.

Sam's POV

"_Today was great! I didn't think it'd be this good! I'm happy school will be easy this year. I wonder if I can hang out with Freddy and his friends more. I hope so, Freddy's really nice. He's funny, and sweet too..."_

Meanwhile: Freddy's POV

"_Who knew that this new girl would be all that everyone said she was. Well, I'm not sure if she is everything everyone said she was, but she sure does seem that way. Man, it'd be great to get to know her better. I'd really like that, she's just so damn cool. She's more than cool…"_


	5. Hey You

Chapter 4

Since everyday started off with homeroom, when Jesse and Sam got to school they both went to their own lockers to drop off some books. Sam grabbed her Calculus book, along with her notebook for U.S. History. On her way to her homeroom she saw her brother hanging around some lockers with some other boys. As she passed they gave each other a fist punch like they were good buddies. His friends noticed that this upperclassman girl acknowledged a freshman boy.

"Whoa, you know her?" One of his friends, Benny asked him. "She's like a senior or something!" He exclaimed as he kept watching her walk down the hall.

Jesse kept looking down the hall following his sister. "She's a junior." Jesse told them.

"Wow Morton, you get to know some people fast!" he said to Jesse.

"Nah guys, she's my older sister." He told them.

Both his friends dropped their jaws. "She's your sister! Damn, she's good looking!" Alex said, with Benny nodding along with the statement.

"That's gross guys, why'd you have to say that man?" Jesse said, slightly grossed out that his new friends thinks his sister's cute.

"What's her name?" Benny asked Jesse.

"Samantha, but we all call her Sam for short." He said.

Benny and Alex looked at each other. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Samantha, Sam Morton?" he asked. "The new girl, that everyone was saying was like this perfect student?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah man. Everyone was talking about how she like can do all this musical stuff, she gets good grades, and she plays sports like volleyball or something right?" Alex said energetically.

"No way man." Jesse said shaking his head.

"What?" Alex asked him. "She isn't like any of those things we just said?"

"Nope." Jesse said calmly. "She plays basketball, not volleyball!" he said with a chuckle.

Benny rolled his eyes at Jesse. "Ah man." Benny said, pushing Jesse on the shoulder. The warning bell for homeroom rang and the halls soon became empty. Sam made it to her homeroom before the warning bell rang so she mad herself comfortable in her seat and waited for Tomika and Zack to show up. They walked in the room one after the other and sat down in their seats.

"Hey Sam." Tomika greeted her.

"Morning Sam. So, first day went good yesterday?" Zack asked, taking his backpack off and putting it on his desk.

"Yep, sure did. It was pretty good. Better than I expected." She confessed. The morning announcements came on the TV, but only half the class was paying attention to what they were talking about.

"So, you gonna sit with us at lunch again?" Tomika asked. "It's cool now, we have an new member." She said smiling.

"Oh yeah, Ms. Baxter, my counselor was saying you guys have all been together for a while." Sam told them, looking from Tomika to Zack. "That true?" she asked.

"Sure is. We're in this…uh…'music group'." He told her.

"That's awesome!" Sam said. "I'd love to hear you guys sometime."

Zack thought it'd be the perfect time to drop a hint about their band. "That'd be great. Maybe, if you sing, you could do some songs with us too." Zack suggested.

"Yeah, I could have some extra help belting out those notes." Tomika smiled. "We heard you sing and dance and all that musical stuff." She told her.

"Where'd you hear that?" Sam said, confused on how they would possibly know that Sam loved to sing.

"Word's been going around school from last week about you." Zack told her.

"About me? Why?" she asked, confused once again.

"People were saying that you could like sing and dance, you had really good grades and did great in school, you can play all kinds of sports and you're super athletic. You're really nice and teachers like you, basically everyone knows you as the perfect student, 'cause you're so good at everything." Tomika explained.

Sam looked at her strangely. "How'd they come up with those judgments?" Sam asked them.

"I don't know." Zack told her. "We just started hearing about those things like on the second day of school last week. So the words gotten around school." He said. Tomika and Zack continued to tell Sam about the things people were saying about her. She was still shocked that people knew things about her before she even showed up at school.

Calculus wasn't her best subject, but she didn't mind doing any math. That day she was called up to the board to write out 3 different problems. She thought that was because her teacher knew that she could do the work, and no one volunteered to do it. But in the back of her mind, she thought that maybe her teachers heard all the positive gossip about her and her school work. After calculus she had AP U.S. History with Freddy and Zack. She was happy to go to that class since Zack was funny and very talkative. And she liked seeing Freddy, just to see him.

"Hey guys." Freddy said, sitting down in his seat. Sam was getting her books out and Zack was scribbling something on a piece of paper.

"Sup Freddy." Zack said, still looking down at his paper.

"Hey Freddy." Sam said, looking to her right. They both smiled at each other for a moment until the bell to start class rang. A few minutes into class, Zack dropped a piece of crumpled up paper over Freddy's shoulder. He opened it and read it quickly:

_Yo Spazzy, just wanted to say we better ask her if she'd join our band. Summer's hassling all of us, so we better get to it soon! You wanna ask her? Or should one of us do it? 'Cause I know you'd probably like to talk to her more. wink-wink_

He tore off a piece of paper from his notebook and wrote a message back to Zack. He told Zack that he'd ask Sam about it later that day. He was planning on asking her during lunch. But if he wouldn't have the chance to ask her then, there was always a chance he'd catch up with her on her way home. They did only live 4 houses away from each other. They all made it to lunch and sat at their table in the cafeteria. That day, Sam came in with Katie and went through the lunch line with her. On their way to their table, Katie pointed out all the groups at lunch.

"So, over there is the popular kids. Some of 'em are actually cool." She said. "But very few." She emphasized more on 'very'. "The Athletes. All kinds of sports, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball. And next to them is the girls table. In the corner are the really smart guys. We don't really have a name for them, not like they're the A.V. kids or anything. They're just really smart and get good grades all the time!" she told Sam. Katie gestured to a few other groups by the time they got to their table.

Katie sat down next to Summer at their lunch table. "Hey guys."

"Hey, wassup guys." Sam said, sitting at the end of the rectangular table.

"So, how's today goin'?" Tomika asked Sam. "Better than yesterday?"

"Well, kinda sorta. I mean, yesterday was pretty good, considering it was my first day. But today, all my classes have asked me to talk about where I'm from and all that stuff." Sam took a bite from her sandwich.

"You mean like telling them you're from Hawaii?" Freddy asked.

"Yep. I've had to explain all of the same things to 4 classes. Basic stuff: I'm Hawaiian, from Hawaii, yes I can surf, I can speak Hawaiian, we have to have Japanese white sticky rice with our food, we don't wear long pants or jeans 'cause it's too hot, we don't call them flip-flops, they're slippers, which came from the Japanese culture." She paused to take a sip of her juice.

Zack's face looked like he just saw a ghost. "Whoa, wait. You call them slippers?" Zack asked.

"Yeah. Every time I hear 'flip-flops' I gotta buss-out laughing. It's just weird, callin' slippers 'flip-flops'. I'd say it more like 'rubbah slippahs' actually." She smiled and started to chuckle. "I'm used to it though. I had to do that all the time in California. Wherever we went, not only school. I'd wear shirts and have stuff from Hawaii, and people would ask me what store I got it from. I told them it was from back home, and they wanted the 411 on Hawaii and people from Hawaii."

"I think people from Hawaii are awesome." Freddy said to her. There was a small moment of silence around the table as everyone turned to look at him. He quickly realized what he said and how he said it and came up with a cover-up. "Ya know, I mean, that it's such a unique culture and all." He said, stumbling over his words. "Really different from here, so it's cool." He said, blushing and looking down at his plate.

"Nice save." Zack said, who was sitting next to him had to laugh at Freddy.

"It's cool having you here Sam." Tomika told her. "You bring more 'color' up in this part of the land." Tomika said as everyone chuckled.

"True that. I'm like naturally Hawaiian-kine dark skinned. Up in California everyone thought I was Spanish or Mexican 'cause I'm dark skinned." She told them.

Tomika smiled, "Well, it's good to have another dark skinned sister!" she said. "Too many of these lighter people here." She said as the whole table cracked up.

"Back home, we call people from the mainland haole's." Sam told them. "Haole is Hawaiian for foreigner. You guys know the story of the missionaries right?" she asked them as they all either shook their heads or shrugged. "The missionaries came to Hawaii and overthrew our monarch, along with bringing small pox and killing off practically all the native Hawaiians. So anyone from the mainland (North America) that's fair-skinned, we just call them haole." She said. They all were shocked to hear such a story of how a nickname came to be. Sam continued on answering their questions they had about Hawaii and how it's different from the mainland. The bell to end their lunch period was about to ring, so everyone got up to throw their food away and head on to their next classes. Freddy forgot about asking Sam about their band, so he caught up with her on their way out.

"Hey." He said walking along side Sam.

"Hey Freddy. I hope I didn't bore you guys with my stories about Hawaii." She said to him.

"Oh, of course not. I love hearin' about you." He said, then Sam turned to him surprised at what he said. "Oh, I mean we like hearin' about you. About Hawaii." He said, embarrassed. "So, umm…" he wasn't quite sure of how to ask her. "You walking home today?" he asked her.

"Mmhmm. Jesse's goin' to the mall with his friends, so yeah, I'm walking home by myself." She told him, curious to what Freddy was getting at.

"You mind if I walk home with you?" he asked her, hoping that she'd say yes.

She looked up and smiled at him. "Sure."

"Great, I'll meet you by the trophy case after school then." He said happily.

"Okay." She said smiling back. "I'll see ya then." She said, turning the corner to go to her French class.

"Okay, bye Sam." He gave her a small wave and went on his way to class. He was so pleased that he'd get a chance to ask her to join their band, and have a chance just to be with her again. Sixth and seventh period went by quickly, so did Freddy once the last bell of the day rang. He raced to his locker to put his things away so that he'd meet Sam in time to walk her home. They both met at the trophy case at the same time.

"So, you ready to go home?" he asked her.

"Yep, let's go." She said cheerfully. They didn't live that far from school, a few blocks in fact. Each step Freddy was trying to figure out how to ask Sam about their band. She noticed that he had a puzzled face on so she asked him if he was alright.

"Oh no, I'm fine." He told her. "Actually…" he began. "I wanted to ask you something."

She turned to him with all attention on him. "Shoots."

"You're a good singer right?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, I'm okay." She said. "I'm definitely not the best." She warned him.

"You've sung before right? Probably with school or something?" he asked her.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, from third grade on I've been in my school's choir." She told him. "Why?" she asked him.

"Well, I don't know." He said, figuring out how to word it. "Can ya sing something' for me?" he asked her.

"Uh…I don't know. I'm probably not a good singer." She said shyly as they turned to crossed the street.

"Oh c'mon, you can't be worse than me." He reassured her with a gentle smile.

Sam couldn't resist the Jones smile. "Okay." Sam finally gave in. "What do you want me to sing?" she asked.

"Anything would sound beautiful." He told her, already working his magic on her. She smiled as her eyes drifted about, thinking of something to sing. She opened her mouth to sing a song that was sung to her as a little girl.

"Hush-a-bye, don't you cry

Go to sleep my little baby

When you wake, you shall have

All the pretty little horses

Blacks and bays, dapples and grays

Coach and six-a-little horses

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry

Go to sleep my little baby"

When she finished singing Freddy stopped walking and just stared at Sam in amazement. He didn't know what to say to her after that. Her voice was angelic, something he's never heard before. It was different from Tomika's, but he liked the sound she had.

"That was amazing." He said softly. "You have a beautiful voice." He told her as she smiled back.

"Thanks." She replied. "My mom used to sing me that song when I was little. Every night when I'd go to sleep." She said.

"It was great." He complimented her once again. "We could definitely use your voice." He said to her.

Sam's eyes narrowed. "What?" she asked somewhat confused. They started to walk once again as Freddy now explained what he'd been trying to tell her.

"Okay. Summer and the rest of the guys, myself included," he started to say. "We heard that you could sing really well." She looked at him with a funny look.

"From the rumors right?" she asked him skeptically.

"Well, yeah." He said, feeling a little guiltily for believing them. "But this time the rumors were true!" he exclaimed making Sam smile. "And now since I've just heard that you have a great…an incredible voice," he paused. "We'd like you to join our band." He finally told her.

Sam paused for a second, not quite sure what he just said. "Wait, you mean your band you have with Summer, and Zack, and Katie and everyone else? That band?" she was shocked that he'd want her to be apart of their band.

"Yeah! We have this big competition this year that we feel we can really win. With only Tomika, it'll be different since we had 2 other girls, but they moved. And Dewey's not really our lead singer anymore." He told her.

"Who's Dewey?" she asked, not knowing of this person he spoke of.

"Oh, he started our band up when we were like in, elementary school." He said to her proudly.

"Whoa, so wait." She said, drawing her hands up to stop walking. "You guys want me," she paused to think. "To be a singer, with Tomika in your band?" she asked, hoping she got some part of it wrong.

He nodded his head. "Yes."

"Wow." She said, thinking about what's been said.

"They wanted to know if you'd come to our rehearsal tomorrow after school and maybe sing with us. Then you'd decide if you'd wanna help us out and join the band." He told her. She still wanted to think this through but told him she'd at least go with them to their rehearsal the next day.

"Okay, I'll go with you guys." She finally told him.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "You'll love it." He said.

"But where's this rehearsal at?" she asked him. "I'm sure my mom would have to know where I'd be going." She said, annoyed that her mom still watched over her shoulder at everything she did like a bat.

"Umm, you want me to call you tonight to give you all the details?" he asked her.

"Sure, that'd be great." She said. She took a pen out of her bag and quickly wrote her number on a piece of notebook paper and tore it out. "I'll talk to you tonight then." She told him.

Freddy smiled and nodded. "You bet." He agreed. They said goodbye and Freddy kept on walking towards his house as Sam walked up towards her front door.


	6. I got the music in me

Chapter 5

The next day after school they were picked up from school by Dewey who drove his van to get them. Summer saw him park his van along the side walk and directed everyone to head out to his van. When they got there, Dewey stepped out to meet Sam.

"Dewey, this is Sam, the girl I've been telling you about." Summer introduced Sam to Dewey.

"Well nice to meet you Sam." He said with a friendly smile.

"Hey Dewey." She said, shaking his hand.

Dewey crossed his arms across his chest. "So, everyone tells me you can uh…belt them notes huh?" he asked her.

"Ah, nah, not really." She disagreed, somewhat blushing herself.

"Don't listen to her Dewey." Freddy said stepping into the conversation. "She can really sing." He said smiling at her.

"Well, hopefully you do decide to join our little rock-out band so we can really make it big this year!" he said with excitement. "Let's go!" he exclaimed and headed over to the drivers side to get in. Sam stepped into his van and was amazed at what she saw. Posters or artists up against the walls of the van, old t-shirts of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were thrown around on the floor, and classic rock music was playing on his CD player. Zack closed the door behind him and Dewey started the van to take them to his place to practice.

"So, what kinda music you into Sam?" Dewey asked. "It's somewhat essential you like the music we play." He told her.

"All kinds of music." She said to him, still looking around his van.

"Well, let me ask you this one question." He said, turning around to look at her. "Have you ever gotten the Led out before?" he asked with narrowed eyes. Everyone turned to her, hoping she'd say yes, and that's she'd know what he was talking about.

"Dewey," she paused. "There wasn't one moment that I did not take the Led out as I rocked to Rock and Roll, Battle of Evermore, or Black Dog. And who could ever forget Stairway to Heaven man." She exclaimed. They all cheered and smiled that she knew the kind of music they were talking about.

"Yes, finally! Someone who knows the history of real music right off the back!" he remembered when he first asked everyone what music they listened to. "Man, if you guys were like Sam and knew who Led Zeppelin was the first time I met you, we would've been able to make it like that!" he said snapping his fingers.

Summer gave Dewey a small smirk and turned to Sam. "So, you like classic rock like Zeppelin and Hendrix?" Summer asked in reassurance.

"Well, yeah!" Sam exclaimed, speaking over the music. "I mean with my mom and dad, I gotta have some history in myself about this kine music." She said. "My dad's totally into Zeppelin, and he can't ever let me forget Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner". My mom like Black Sabbath, who could forget Ozzy's "Ironman"?" she said, everyone impressed someone other than one of them knew about this type of music. "The Rolling Stone, Styx, The Doors. Even a little newer groups like Queen, or Metallica. That's the music I grew up with." Sam said. They reached Dewey's apartment in which they practice. They all filed out of his van and headed up to his apartment. Dewey opened the door and everyone went to their separate instruments awaiting to be played, Summer sat down on her couch, Tomika stepped up to the mic, and Sam just stood in amazement once again.

"This Sam, might become your second home." Dewey said to her as he closed the door. "Now see Sam, may I call you Sam?" he asked, walking her towards their practice space. "Sam, I used to be the rocker of this group, long long ago." He said in memory of the good old days. "But then I finally realized that Tomika could rock out without me, and Zack would be able to melt faces alone, so I stepped aside." Dewey continued speaking dramatically.

"Nah, he just realized the crowd like us kids better, and he had to get a _real_ job." Zack said chuckling.

Dewey pointed to Zack who was hooking up his guitar. "Zack Attack, don't make me pull the plug!" Dewey threatened in a joking way. Everyone chuckled as Dewey walked Sam over to the couch where Summer was sitting.

"Now, we'll run one song for you so that you can hear Tomika sing, and see the magic happen." He said making a picture frame with his hands around the band. As Sam sat and listened, she noticed that they all were totally into what they were doing. Lawrence on the keyboards was totally focused on playing, Katie looked so mellow-out and relaxed on her bass, Tomika was singing her heart out, Zack couldn't help but melt some faces as he played his guitar. And as she looked at Freddy on drums, she noticed every once in a while he'd look up to see if she was watching and smiled at her. She could tell he had a blast getting all his energy out on his drums and to be able to feel the rhythm from his fingers, through his sticks, and into the music of the drums.

"Guys that was awesome!" Sam said with such excitement as she stood up when they were done with their song. "That totally rocked! Seriously, you guys have such talent!" she said cheerfully.

Summer stood up next to Sam. "I know, I do manage a pretty damn good group of kids don't I?" Summer declared.

"Tomika, your voice is like it was sent from heaven! It's so beautiful!" Sam told her.

Tomika smiled. "Thanks, but I'm just a soprano. We've gotta have an alto to balance it out." Tomika hinted towards Sam.

"So Sam, you ready to try a song with the School of Rock?" Dewey said in a mysterious voice. Sam hesitated for a couple of seconds before answering.

"I'll give it my best shot." She said, hoping she'd do okay.

"Okay, great!" Dewey said. "What song do you know, a song we could play?" he asked her.

"Mmm…" she thought to herself. "I could try Blue Collar Man?" she replied. "Ya think that'll work?" she asked all of them.

"Yeah, sure." Zack said, whispering cues to Katie, Lawrence and Freddy.

"One, two, one, two, three, four!" Freddy shouted as he clicked his sticks together. Zack began to play the intro of the song as Freddy joined in with the drums as both Katie and Lawrence played along. Tomika stood next to Sam and Sam started to get into the feel of the song. She began to sing and her 'true' self shined like the morning sun.

"Give me a job, give me security

Give me a chance to survive

I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line

My god, I'm hardly alive

My mother and father, my wife and my friends

I see them laugh in my face

But I've got the power, and I've got the will

I'm not a charity case"

Tomika then joined with her for the chorus. Tomika's soprano voice matched perfectly with Sam's alto voice that made the chorus sound perfect.

"I'm gonna be a blue collar man."

Dewey and Summer both watched Sam take part in The School of Rock. Dewey watched Sam 'take the stage' and really show them how she could sing and how she acts on stage. He didn't see her as someone who was on stage just for the money or the glory. But he could tell that she really did enjoy what she was doing. Her presence in the room to begin with changed everyone, and now having her sing a song with the band changed them all for good. Summer saw Sam as a great new member of the band. She knew that Sam would be able to help them move along with their career in the business. Summer knew that Tomika could carry the band by herself, Tomika knew this as well. But they decided it'd be easier on everyone if they had someone else to help Tomika sing their songs. Summer nodded to Dewey in agreement that they've just found the missing piece of their puzzle. As Sam finished

"I'll take those long nights, impossible odds

Keeping my eye to the key whole

If it takes all that to be just who I am

Well I'm bound be a blue collar

Gotta be a blue collar

Gonna to be a blue collar man"

"That so totally rocked you guys!" Dewey said with such enthusiasm, he knew that they'd just hit the jackpot. "Sam, you did awesome!" he said, slapping her hand.

"Thanks. That felt great." She said, smiling and high-fived everyone else. They were all pumped and energized from that song that the whole room was buzzing with excitement.

"So Sam, what do you say?" Summer asked curiously.

"Yeah Sam, what do you say?" Dewey repeated. "How about it? You'll be our new member of The School of Rock!" he said. They all awaited her reply as she thought about it.

She looked at everyone for a while. "Well," she began. "If it's okay with my mom, I don't see why not!" she said happily. Everyone cheered at her answer, knowing that with her in the band they'd definitely make it big this year. They hugged her, smiled at her, slapped her hands, they were all just glad Sam decided to be apart of their band. More than anyone, Freddy was ecstatic to be able to spend even more time with Sam.


	7. Along for the ride

Chapter 6

The next day at lunch Sam was planning on telling them whether or not her mom said yes or no about her joining the band. She waited until everyone was there to let them know.

"Well, what'd she say?" Zack asked, being the last one to sit down. Everyone practically dropped what they were doing to hear what Sam was going to say.

"Well, my mom had to think about it for a long time." She began. "But she said okay." She smiled as they all let out a deep breath.

Tomika high fived Sam. "That's awesome Sam." Tomika said.

"My mom and dad just wanna meet all of you guys, and Dewey too. Since he's kinda the adult in charge and all." She told them.

"No problem." Summer said, reaching for her planner from her bag. She took out the pencil from her hair and wrote a short message on a page. "I'll call Dewey tonight, and we can probably all meet your family…let's say," she checked her planner again. "Friday evening okay?" she asked, looking up to Sam.

Sam nodded in agreement. "Sure, I'll run it by my mom." She told them.

Sam went home that afternoon and waited until her mom got home from going to the market. She heard her mom pull up and hurried out to help her bring in the grocery bags. Once everything was put away and her mom had time to talk, Sam brought up the subject of meeting the band.

"Hey mom." Sam asked, sitting down at the counter. Her mom took out a pitcher of juice and poured her a glass of it. "You know how you wanted to meet everyone, in the band. And Dewey?" she said.

"Mmm-hmm." Mrs. Morton replied, drinking her juice.

"Well, you think it'd be okay if they come over tomorrow night?" she asked.

Mrs. Morton stopped drinking and looked at Sam. "Tomorrow?" she asked surprised. "I didn't think it'd be _this_ soon. Well," she said putting down her cup. "Would they be coming over for dinner, or just a short 'say hello'?" she asked Sam.

"Uh, I don't know?" Sam replied, not sure whether or not they wanted to have dinner there.

"Hmm." Mrs. Morton thought. "I could make dinner and we could eat outside, where there's more room." She suggested. "That way we could all get to know each other better over dinner." She said.

"Sure! I'm sure they'll like it." Sam agreed, pleased her mom went along with the idea. "I'll come home early tomorrow to help you get dinner ready then." She said.

"Okay. We'll talk it over more when dad gets home for dinner." She told Sam. Sam nodded and headed up stairs to her room to start her homework.

Jesse turned to Sam as she walked by. "So, your band's comin' over tomorrow for dinner?" Jesse asked, lying down on the couch watching TV.

"Yep, so no weird stuff tomorrow okay. And no dirty jokes or kid stories. Or I'll do just the same with you." She warned him.

"Wouldn't matter, I'm not their friend." He retorted.

"So?" she said back, grabbing her backpack from the chair. "They'll just laugh it off it was me 'cause they are my friends. But you're just my kid brother who they have nothing to do with, so they actually might think it's funny and laugh at you." She said, smirking. Jesse sat up and thought about it long and hard. He finally looked up to her with a 'throw in the white flag' look on his face. Knowing he gave up she bowed on her way up the stairs.

"So your boyfriend's gonna be here too huh?" he asked.

She stopped walking. "What?" she was caught off guard with that question. "What boyfriend?" she asked him.

"You know, that Freddy guy, couple houses down." He said, getting her attention. "I know you like him Sam." He said, seeing her eyes panic.

"What?" she said, pretending she didn't like him. "I don't like Freddy. We're friends." She lied.

Jesse rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Right. I've seen you guys in school and at lunch. He definitely has a crush on you…I don't know why." He said in a brotherly tone.

"Oh, very nice. Why don't I just tell that little freshman girl you follow around in school that you like her, huh?" she threatened.

"Ashley?" he panicked, practically jumping off the couch. Sam began to laugh as she headed back up the stairs. "I mean, uh, what girl?" he said trying not to blush.

"Smooth little man." She said at the top of the stairs, still chuckling to herself. Jesse turned towards the stairs and yelled to Sam.

"Just so we know, this conversation never happened okay!"

The next day they all met at the second floor staircase like the days before. This was their normal meeting place in the morning and afternoon. When Sam got there she told everyone about dinner that night. She called Freddy the night before to tell him. He ended up calling Zack who then called Summer to let her know too. Sam let the rest know about it, and they all said they'd be able to make it. Before homeroom started Summer called Dewey just to tell him the time to pick them all up to drive over to Sam's house.

"Hey Sam," Zack started to say. "Is Jesse your younger brother?" he asked her.

"Yeah." She said. "Why?"

"He hangs out with these couple of freshman boys…Benny or something right? And that Alex kid?" he asked her.

She nodded her head and looked up at him. "Yeah, I think that's their names. Why, they bothered you or something?"

"Oh no." Zack said. "I think his friends like you or something." Zack told her, almost about to laugh.

"Oh yeah, Jesse told me about that." She confessed. Everyone started to smile and laugh quietly to themselves. All except for Freddy who took this seriously. "I mean, it's nothing worth getting all uptight about. No big deal." She said.

"Yeah Freddy, no freshmen can compete with you for a girl." Zack said to make it obvious to everyone about Freddy's crush. Both Freddy and Sam blushed and looked away from each other as the rest of the group smiled and laughed quietly. It was obvious to the rest of them that Sam and Freddy liked each other, but weren't going to say anything about it. Except for Zack who loved to torture Freddy like this.

"So, you guys wanna hang out after school today at Danny's?" Tomika asked everyone.

"Sure, I'm up to it." Larry said. Katie and Summer both nodded to that idea.

"Sounds good." Zack replied. He looked at Freddy to see if he'd like to come along too. Freddy nodded then turned to Sam.

Freddy turned to look at Sam who sat across from him. "You comin' Sam?" he asked her since she didn't say yes yet.

"Oh, sorry guys. Wish I could. I have to go around town and take pictures for my photography class. They already started their projects in the beginning of the week, so I gotta catch up to them." She said.

"Well, maybe next time then." Summer suggested.

"Sure." She replied to Summer. They all finished their lunch and went out to the courtyard to wait until the lunch period was over. After school everyone met at their meeting place on the second floor to all go over to Danny's. Summer and Lawrence drove to school that day, they all separated to go with either one of them. Sam saw them before they left to say goodbye to them. She went to her locker before she left school when Freddy came walking around the corner.

"Hey Sam." He said, with a bright smile.

"Hey." She said, somewhat confused why he was still at school. "I thought you were going to Danny's with them?" she asked, pointing towards the doors. "They just left." She told him.

"Yeah, I know. I told them I'd go with them another time." He said. He fidgeted with his backpack strap and straightened his shirt. "Yeah, I was just wondering." He began to say. "Maybe I could go with you to take pictures." He said. Sam looked surprised that he'd want to stay back with her. "I mean, I like photography, but I've never taken it before. So I could help you, show you around town where you can take some really good pictures." He said. "I mean, if you wouldn't mind. I could still catch up with them if you want." He said, already walking towards the door.

"No wait." Sam said, stopping him by putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'd love it if you'd come with me." She told him with a gentle smile. Freddy smiled back and waited for her to close her locker. They walked out of the school and onto the sidewalk in silence. They both felt a bit awkward going somewhere with just each other, but at the same time they didn't mind it.

"So, what kind of pictures do you need?" Freddy asked, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets.

Sam looked deep into the town she saw before her. "For my project, my theme is 'Live just to live'." She said. "So I'm thinking of taking photos of things with life. Not only people, but like trees, or cars that are in motion, the sun, animals, stuff like that. Hey, even stuff like fans that are one, or a TV that's one. When things are working, it's like they're living, does that make sense?" she asked Freddy.

"Yeah, I get it. It can be any object that when it's on or working, it's like humans. How we live when we work and move, like a fan or TV." He told her.

"Exactly." She replied. "I was thinking stopping by the park a couple blocks away. Hopefully there's some kids playing, or people walking around the place." She suggested.

"Sounds great." Freddy replied. They walked over to the park, and to kill time they talked about the band. They shared with each other the type of music they liked, and the different artists. Sam brought up Hawaiian music, and Hawaiian Contemporary music. Of course Freddy didn't know what that was, so she had to tell him what kind of music that was. By the time they got to the park they talked about Hawaiian music, oldies, classical/instrumental, jazz and blues, 80's rock, and of course classic rock.

"Hey, how about over there?" Freddy suggested, pointing to a jungle gym with a swing set. There were a few little boys and girls running around the jungle gym as well as swinging on the swing set. Freddy walked over to the jungle gym with Sam, but sat down on a bench near it. He didn't want to distract her when she'd be taking her pictures.

"Excuse me." Sam said, walking towards the mothers of the children playing. "Hi, I'm Sam, I'm a high school student at Horace Green High." She introduced herself. "If it's okay, I'd like to take some pictures of your children for my photography class. I have a project and I'd like to use them playing in it, if it's okay?" she asked them.

"Oh that sounds wonderful." One of the mothers replied.

"Well, if you can catch them in a still position to take any pictures." Another mother replied.

"Thanks." Sam smiled back to them. She took a few shots of 2 boys and a girl running around the jungle gym and over a bridge. She got one shot of one of the boys coming down on the slide. Sam got shots of 2 more girls and a boy swinging on the swing set. One girl was pushing the other, and the boy was swinging by himself. Freddy was impressed that Sam could go up to total strangers and just take pictures of them. He didn't know what it was, but something about Sam was different from all the other girls he's known and gone out with. Something different about Sam made her special to him.

Sam walked up to Freddy and stopped right in front of him. "Okay, done." She said to him. He stood up and walked with her back towards the sidewalk.

"That was pretty cool." He told her. "You just going up there and taking pictures of them. I'd be too afraid. I'd just take pictures of my friends." He chuckled. "Well, I figured why not ask them. Besides, if they saw me taking pictures of their kids they might think I'm a weirdo or something." She said. "I got some pretty good shots of them. They were sweet kids." She smiled.

"So, where to next?" he asked her.

"Hmm…" she thought. "I'm not sure. How about I just take random pictures of things that look 'alive'." She suggested. They walked around the neighborhood just taking pictures of trees, cars, people walking their dogs, anything that looked alive. By the time they reached their street they had 4 pictures of cars, 3 of people walking their pets, 5 pictures of trees blowing in the wind, 1 of a water sprinkler on someone's lawn, and 2 of a group of boys playing football in the streets.

"This was fun." Sam said once they got to her house. "Running around the neighborhood was fun." She said as they both smiled and laughed.

Freddy smiled and said, "I'm glad I went with you." He told her. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." He said.

"Okay."

"Bye Sam." He waved goodbye and turned around to walk to his house. Sam started to walk to her front door and looked back at Freddy. When she reached her door, Freddy also turned around to look at Sam. When he got home, he saw Zack waiting on his porch.

"So, had a nice date?" he said to Freddy.

He raised one eyebrow at Zack. "What?" Freddy said. "It wasn't a date." He told Zack.

"Yeah right, then why'd you wanna go with her instead of hang with us at Danny's huh?" Zack said to him.

"I just wanted to hang out with her that's all." Freddy said sitting down next to Zack.

"Mmm-hmm, yeah right." Zack said. Freddy pushed him on his shoulder when Zack started to laugh.


	8. In the still of the night

Chapter 7

Friday was the day that they'd all be going over to Sam's house for dinner. Sam was a bit nervous the night before about the whole thing, but at the same time she was excited to have everyone meet her family. They all knew Jesse, and Jesse knew them too. Sam's parents only met Freddy since he lived a couple houses away from hers. The person Sam was the most nervous about her parents meeting was Dewey. Dewey was a little eccentric, but in time I'm sure her parents would realize he's just a big kid at heart.

"Hey Sam." Summer said. Their English teacher had given them study hall time while she corrected their papers. "What time should we be over at your house for dinner?" she asked.

"I think my mom said about 7, if that's good for you guys." Sam said.

Summer nodded and focused on her planner. "Sure, sounds good." She penciled it in her planner, and told herself to remind everyone that afternoon.

"Cool." Sam agreed.

"So, what time are we meeting at Sam's?" Zack asked. A group of students rushed by them to get home early. It was Friday and everyone wanted to head home for the weekend. They were on the second floor deciding when they'd meet at Sam's house.

"Sam said about 7:00, if that's cool for you guys." Summer said.

Tomika and Katie nodded. "Okay, sounds great." Tomika said. "Summer, you driving again?" she asked. Summer, Tomika, and Katie discussed when Summer would pick them up. In the meantime, Freddy wanted to ask Sam something.

"So Sam, do you want us to come early to help you guys set up?" he asked. "I mean, if it'd be okay with your mom." Since both Freddy and Zack lived on her street, they could easily just walk over earlier to help them out.

"Okay. I'm sure my mom would like the help." She told them.

"Great, so we'll be there like," Zack paused to think. "6:30 okay?" he asked.

Sam nodded and said, "Sounds good."

They all walked down to the first floor to head home. Zack, Freddy and Sam walked home together since they all lived on the same street. They all talked about their week and how it went. Since it was Sam's first week of school, she had a lot to say. She said that things were going great at Horace Green. She did still miss California and the people she met there. But she missed Hawaii even more. Although there were a few things here that she didn't find back home. A nice school, interesting teachers and classes, along with awesome new friends. And a boy who couldn't stop thinking of her.

When Sam got home her mom had already started dinner. Her mom was making oven-baked chicken for dinner. Sam started to help her mom mix the salad when Jesse got home.

"Hey Jess, c'mon and help." Sam called from the kitchen.

He put his bag down and guessed she was calling him from the kitchen. "Help with what?" he asked, walking in to see both his mom and sister preparing dinner. "You really want me to help make food that people are gonna consume?" he asked, half joking and half serious.

"Well, we'll just make sure you eat what you make." Sam smirked.

"Sam." Her mom said to her in a motherly tone, meaning to stop bothering her brother. "Jesse, get the mashed potatoes ready." Mrs. Morton said to him.

Jesse looked very disappointed. "Man, why don't they have white sticky rice here?" he asked.

"Yeah, you know how hard it was to get used to the California rice they had there. Man, I miss the Japanese sticky rice." Sam commented.

"Well, every place has different kinds of food. So we just need to learn to adapt." Mrs. Morton said. It was about 6:00 and Mr. Morton came home early from work.

"Mmm." He said, smelling the food. "Smells good in here." He said and kissed Mrs. Morton.

She called to her mom. "Mom, remember, Freddy and Zack are comin' over in half an hour okay." Sam reminded her mom.

"I know, you've told me 4 times already." Mrs. Morton said.

"Isn't Freddy that boy you've been spending some time with?" Mr. Morton asked.

"Yeah, he's Sam's boyfriend." Jesse said in an annoying younger brother voice.

Surprised to what she heard, she raised her eyebrows. "Boyfriend?" Mrs. Morton asked surprised, as Mr. Morton's eyes grew larger.

"No, he's not." Sam said sternly, looking from Jesse, then to her parents. "He's not." She repeated. Even though she told them that he wasn't her boyfriend, she thought of what it'd be like if he was. She knew she liked him, enough that she'd want him to be her boyfriend. But she didn't want to think of something that may not come true. Mr. Morton went upstairs to clean up and get ready for dinner. Jesse did the same after he finished helping Sam and their mom.

It was just after 6:30 when the doorbell rang. Everyone in the Morton house heard the doorbell and they all headed towards the front door to meet Sam's friends. Jesse got there first and opened the door. He greeted both Freddy and Zack with a "Hey" and slapped their hands. He welcomed them in as the rest of the family came together.

"Hey guys." Sam said, greeting both of them. Mr. Morton fixed his tie, and Mrs. Morton stood by his side and smiled at Sam's friends. "Guys, this is my mom and dad. And you know Jesse." Sam said.

"Mom, you know Freddy." She said as Freddy and Mrs. Morton smiled at each other.

"Hi Mrs. M." Freddy said to her.

"Nice to see you again." She said.

"Dad." Sam said to call her dad's attention. "This is Freddy and Zack." She said as both her friends shook her dad's hand.

"Hi Mr. Morton." Zack said, shaking Mr. Morton's hand after Freddy.

Mr. Morton smiled to the both of them. "Nice to meet you both. So what instruments do you boys play?" he asked them.

"Oh, I play the electric guitar." Zack told him proudly.

"And I'm on drums." Freddy told him, pulling his drums sticks out from his belt where he stuck them. "I take my sticks everywhere." Freddy said, only noticing after he said it how weird it sounded.

Mrs. Morton started to walk towards the kitchen to grab everyone's attention. "Well, let's get to setting that table. They should be here in a while, so we have last minute things to do." She said. Jesse took Freddy and Zack's jackets and hung them up. Sam led them to their backyard and Mr. Morton followed behind them. Since their dinning room table wouldn't hold more than 6 people, they put their two picnic tables together so they could fit everyone in one area. Sam and Jesse went to grab the plates and utensils and met everyone else outside.

"Here guys." Jesse said, putting down the forks on the table. Sam placed all 11 plates down on the table. "I still gotta go get the napkins and cups." He said, turning around to head back into the house.

Freddy started to follow him. "I'll help." He said. Freddy came back in a little bit and started to put the napkins around what plates were already set by Sam. Zack took the forks and put them on the napkins. As it got closer to 7, they started to bring out the food to put it on the tables. Jesse lifted his head up when he thought he heard a car stop in front of their house.

"I think someone's here." He said, hoping someone would be listening to him.

Mrs. Morton dusted off her hands and said, "Okay then, lets get everything together." They all double checked the tables to see if everything was ready and one by one went back into the house. The doorbell rang and everyone took in a deep breath.

"I'll get it." Sam said, walking in front of everyone to answer the door. She opened the door and saw Dewey standing next to Lawrence. "Hi guys." She said to them. "Come in." she slapped Lawrence's hand as he walked past her and high fived Dewey's. She closed the door behind her and turned around to see her parents. "Mom, Dad, Jesse this is Dewey." She told them. Dewey immediately went to shake their hands. "He started the band a couple years back."

"Nice to finally meet the parents of a very talented young lady." Dewey said.

"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Dewey." Mrs. Morton said.

"Zack Attack!" Dewey said excitedly as he gave Zack a knuckle punch. "Spazzy!" he said to Freddy. "Lookin' good man!" he said, smiling. He winked at Freddy and nudged him with his elbow, jerking his head to Sam. Freddy just turned away as both Dewey and Zack let out a laugh. Mr. and Mrs. Morton watched Dewey talk with the boys and they could tell that they were a tight group of friends.

Sam put her hand on Lawrence's shoulder and directed her parents attention to her. "And this is Lawrence." Lawrence gave them a small bow then went to greet her family. He shook Mr. and Mrs. Morton's hands and slapped Jesse's hand.

"What do you play Lawrence?" Mr. Morton asked him.

"I play the keyboard." Lawrence answered politely.

"Oh yeah, Lawrence can tear it up on keyboard!" Zack said, giving Lawrence a little nudge on his shoulder.

Freddy looked at Dewey. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"They're probably be here in a while." Dewey answered. "You know girls, they always take a long time to get ready." Dewey said, teasing Sam.

"Haha, very funny." She said, shaking her head at the boys. "C'mon, let's go wait in the living room." Everyone took a seat on a chair or couch, or they settled down on the floor. Mrs. Morton started to talk a little with Dewey about their band and how he formed it. Of course Zack, Freddy and Lawrence told Sam's parents about the funny story of how Dewey pretended to be their teacher. Throughout the story both Mr. and Mrs. Morton laughed constantly. Jesse couldn't keep still from all the laughing he was doing.

"Ah man, that's how you guys became a band?" Sam asked, still laughing from hearing the background story. "Wow, that's…" she paused to calm down. "That's some way of making a band Dewey." She told him.

"Well hey, I had to do something." He said. "But it worked didn't it? Besides, they got some days off from school, we played a kick ass show, and I totally got to be the star of the show, like it should've been from the beginning!" he exclaimed, raising his right hand in a first into the air.

"Oh so not true!" Zack said.

"Yeah right!" Freddy exclaimed as all 3 boys protested to what Dewey said.

Lawrence moved to the edge of his seat. "Dewey, you were not the star of the show!" he told them.

"Zack was the star!" Freddy said, pointing to him with both hands.

"Yeah, everyone loved him." Lawrence added.

"Well what can I say," Zack looked at his fingernails. "I've got the talent, the skills, _and_ the looks." He said smiling, as pretended to dust his shoulder off. Everyone started laughing, including Zack himself. Soon after the doorbell rang and Sam got up from her seat.

"I'll get it." She said, as everyone followed her to the door. She opened the door and saw Tomika, Summer, and Katie standing in back of them. "Hey guys, come on in."

"Hey Sam." Summer said, stepping inside first.

Tomika followed after her. "Thanks Sam." Katie was the last in and said hi to Sam as well. Sam closed the door and made her way in front of the group of girls. "Mom, dad, this is Summer, Tomika, and Katie." One by one they greeted and shook Sam's parents hands. "And you guys know Jesse from school." Sam added.

"It's great to meet you girls." Mr. Morton said.

"Sam's told us lots about you girls already." Mrs. Morton smiled at all of them. The girls made some small talk with each other along with the boys when Jesse started to get a little antsy.

Jesse started to fidget before bringing dinner up. "Can we eat yet?" he asked, annoyed that it was taking so long to have dinner.

"Sure." Mrs. Morton said, giving in. "Come on, we're having dinner out in the backyard, if that's okay." She said, leading the whole group through the house.

"Backyard, cool." Katie said, walking along side Lawrence and Zack.

Summer noticed a photo of Sam as they walked through the living room. "Aww, you looked so cute when you were younger." Summer said, drawing everyone's attention to that picture.

"Okay, food time, not picture time." Sam said, moving to block the picture.

"Face it Sam, we're in your house." Tomika said. "We're bound to see kid pictures of you and hear embarrassing stories." She laughed.

"I can help with that." Jesse yelled from the front of the group.

Sam's eyes widened as she said, "No you won't!" Everyone laughed it off and continued through the living room and into the kitchen. Sam was the last one following her mom. Freddy waited for her so he could walk with her.

"Well this is it." Sam said to him, giving him a half smile.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Freddy reassured her. Freddy took Sam's hand, hoping she wouldn't pull it away. She didn't and smiled at him. Zack turned around quickly to see where Freddy was and saw the two of them holding hands.

"Old Freddy Jones' at work." He smiled and shook his head. Everyone made their way out into their backyard, with Sam and Freddy last to come out. Just before Sam and Freddy stepped out of the house, they squeezed each other's hand, hoping that this dinner would go okay.

"Okay everyone, find somewhere to sit." Mr. Morton said, sitting at one end of a picnic table. They put both picnic tables together so it looked like a big long picnic table. Mrs. Morton sat next to her husband, Jesse sat across from his dad at the end of the table on the opposite side. Dewey wanted to make a good impression on Sam's parents, so he sat next to Jesse. On one side of the table, from left to right sat Mr. Morton, Mrs. Morton, Summer, who sat next to Zack, with Freddy at the end. Opposite from Mr. Morton was Jesse, then followed Dewey, Katie, Lawrence, Tomika, and last on the end was Sam. Jesse led everyone in prayer before they started to eat.

"Amen." They all said and lifted their heads up.

Mrs. Morton picked up one plate of the oven chicken she made. "Okay you guys, eat up." She said, taking 2 pieces for her plate and putting 3 on Mr. Morton's plate. She passed the plate to Summer as Freddy passed around the other plate from his side of the table. They passed around the chicken with practically nothing left in either dish, most of the salad and mashed potatoes were gone along with the other food that they had to eat.

"So, lets hear more about this band." Mr. Morton said, taking a break from his chicken.

"Yes, of course." Dewey said, sounding like a business man. "I guess you'd call us a…" he wasn't quite sure how to put it.

"Rock band." Summer said, looking at Dewey.

Dewey nodded his head and said, "Yes, a rock band, thank you Summer." He said as Summer nodded back.

"What kinds of music groups influence your music?" Mrs. Morton asked.

"Our influence is mostly around the classic rock time." He told them, placing his hands on the table. "Music like Hendrix, Zeppelin, Styx, music around that time." While Dewey spoke with Sam's parents, Zack kept on smiling to Freddy.

"Somethin' wrong dude?" Freddy asked, taking a sip from his cup.

"No man, nothing's wrong." He answered, chuckling to himself. Freddy tried not to pay attention to Zack as he listened to what Tomika and Sam were talking about to each other.

"So Summer asked if we could like, write some songs." Tomika suggested.

Sam turned to her in shock. "You mean, write the songs we'd sing?" she asked. Tomika nodded as Sam's eyes widened. "Seriously?" She asked, then turning towards Summer.

"Yeah, it's not that hard." Summer said, although she didn't actually know what it was like since she never did write a song before.

"Pssh, not hard?" Tomika said. "Summer, you've been sittin' on the side lines too long."

"It's really that hard?" Sam said, nervous about hearing more.

"Let's just say it takes a long time to get all the words right." She answered.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine." Freddy reassured Sam in a comforting tone. He heard Zack laughing again and nudged him in his side. Zack started to cough since he was swallowing a piece of lettuce when Freddy nudged him.

"Not cool man." He coughed. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at him. Zack was famous for having things like this happen to him, especially with Freddy. Zack and Freddy were such good friends they loved torturing each other, and this was one of Freddy's way of doing that to Zack. Zack gulped down his juice, trying to clear his throat.

"Here, I'll go get you some water instead." Sam said, getting up from her seat. She stood up and took Zack's cup and went back in the kitchen.

"Where you going Sam?" her dad asked.

Sam quickly walked by them and told them, "Zack needs water." She said as her dad nodded.

"Are you okay Zack?" Mrs. Morton asked, being the mother that she was.

"Oh yeah, I'm okay." He said, letting out one last cough. "I'm good." He reassured her.

"Okay." She said. Everyone chuckled to themselves because they knew why Freddy did that.

"Man, I know my laughing at you wasn't cool, but that was beyond not cool." Zack said to Freddy, rubbing his throat. Freddy continued to laugh until he finally calmed down to talk to Zack.

"Then why'd you laugh at me?" he asked him.

"'Cause I saw you and Sam hold hands back in the kitchen." He said teasingly. Freddy's eyes grew and cheeks began to turn a light pink. "Don't think I didn't see you wait for Sam back there." Zack told him. Zack began to smile when he noticed Sam opening the door to come back outside.

"Okay, so maybe I did. No big deal." Freddy said quickly before Sam returned to the table.

"Here Zack, hope you're better." Sam said handing Zack a full cup of water.

Zack reached his hand out to take the cup. "Thanks Sam." He said, then took a big a few sips from his cup.

"Yeah, Sam was telling me that you two are rock and roll kind of people huh?" Dewey said, smiling to Sam's parents.

"How'd I know that'd be brought up?" Mr. Morton said, smiling himself. "I do admit, I was a bit of a Zeppelin fan, heck I was a fan of 'em all!" he exclaimed.

"You too mom?" Jesse asked. He'd believe his dad was totally a rock out kind of person but not his mom.

Dewey turned to Mrs. Morton. "Yeah Mrs. M, I bet you were!" he said happily.

Mrs. Morton began to blush and smile. "Okay, you caught me!" she finally said. "I did have a thing for Robert Plant." She blushed even more.

"Ohhhh." Dewey said biting his lips.

"I knew it! I knew you did!" Mr. Morton exclaimed. Everyone started to laugh as Sam put her hand over her eyes, embarrassed of her two parents.

"This is what I didn't plan." Sam said with her head hanging down.

"Don't worry, all parents do this kinda stuff." Freddy said, putting his hand on her free hand that was on the table. Sam felt his hand on hers and removed her hand from her eyes. She smiled at Freddy, taking in his concern for her.

Zack cleared his throat, noticing what Freddy and Sam were doing. "So, this is some good chicken Mrs. M." Zack said, directing his comment to the other end of the table. Freddy removed his hand from Sam's and blushed.

"Why thank you Zack." Mrs. Morton smiled. "But Sam did help me with it when she got home." She commented.

"Sam is quite a chef herself." Mr. Morton added.

"Nah, not really." Sam admitted. She did like to cook and bake, but she didn't see herself as a cook. And neither did Jesse.

"Yeah, she can make stuff." Jesse said. "If you count toasting toast and making cereal." He smirked.

She snapped her head towards Jesse. "This coming from the boy who only can warm up left overs in the microwave." She said to him. Everyone could definitely see the brother-sister love/hate between the two of them.

"Man, she got you good." Dewey said, patting Jesse's shoulder.

"And it's bread, not toast." Sam corrected him. They all continued to eat dinner. More food was passed around the table along with several trips back into the kitchen to get more punch for everyone. Sam's parents talked with Dewey and Summer about the different things they'd be doing in the band. Mr. and Mrs. Morton was very interested in what the band did and what Sam would be doing to help as well. Katie, Lawrence and Zack talked a lot about school and the different classes they had. Lawrence excelled in all of his classes, which didn't help Zack in his case. Tomika and Freddy told Sam more about the song writing she'd be doing, and the different kinds of things they had to remember about writing songs. Soon after they got out the desert which was Dutch Apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

"A very traditionally American desert." Mr. Morton said as he passed out plates of the pie and ice cream. Jesse and Sam went around the tables collecting the rest of the dinner plates to make room for the deserts. Dewey helped Mrs. Morton go to the other side of the table to pass out the desert while Summer and Zack helped take in the rest of the pies and ice cream.

"This was a wonderful night." Dewey said, leading the group out to their cars. "I had such a good time getting to know you both." He said, smiling at Mr. and Mrs. Morton.

"Well we loved your company Dewey." Mrs. Morton said.

Mr. Morton tilted his head towards Dewey. "Ya know, you do remind me of a younger version of me." He declared. "Very in control of things, living his life as it comes." He said, speaking as if he was a dare devil.

"Oh I'm sure you were a wild one Mr. M." Dewey said. Jesse noticed Dewey's van and saw some pictures from the windows.

"Hey Dewey, can I check out your ride?" Jesse asked.

"Sure little man, check it out." Dewey said, tossing Jesse his car keys. Katie, Tomika said goodnight to Sam's parents and walked over to Summer's car. Zack walked them to her car to wait with the girls.

"Whoa, this is awesome!" Jesse exclaimed, looking into his van. "Can I go in?" he turned around to ask Dewey.

"Sure, if you can handle all that's inside!" Dewey said jokingly.

Mr. Morton moved his head to see inside Dewey's van. "Hey Dewey can I have a look too?" he asked, sounding like a little kid.

"Knock yourself out man." He said, patting Mr. Morton's shoulder as he walked by.

"Boys and their cars." Mrs. Morton shook her head and smiled.

"Thank you Mrs. Morton for dinner." Lawrence thanked her.

"Oh no problem Lawrence. You guys are all welcomed here anytime." She said, speaking to the whole group. Summer and the girls heard her from their car and they called back to her.

"Thanks Mrs. M!" Tomika said loud enough for her to hear.

"We'll be sure to come back!" Katie teased.

"Ah mom you shouldn't have said that?" Sam smiled. She turned to Freddy who was standing next to her.

"It turned out pretty good didn't it?" Freddy said.

Sam nodded in agreement. "It did, better than I expected." She answered. "I think my mom and dad really like Dewey." She said as they both turned to look at Dewey.

"And this was the picture I got of Sabbath when they came in town for concert." Dewey told Jesse and Mr. Morton. Sam and Freddy heard them and smiled and shook their heads.

"Thanks for coming early to help. It was nice of you and Zack." Sam told him. "I think things will go pretty good from now on." She said.

"Yeah, the band will be better with you in it." He said.

Sam chuckled to herself and smiled. "I hope so." She said.

"We gotta go Sam." Summer said, halfway in the driver's seat. "I'll see you guys later." She called out. She got in the car and drove off to drop both Tomika and Katie off at home.

"Well, I better take Lawrence home too." Dewey said after showing Jesse and Dewey his van. "I'll tell ya what, next time I come around this part of town I'll let you guys test drive it so you can hear the sound system I put in." he told them as they got out of the car.

"Really?" Jesse asked. "Cool!"

Mr. Morton looked excited himself. "That'd be awesome!" he said, slapping Dewey's hand.

"It'll blow your mind!" Dewey laughed. He and Lawrence both got into the van and drove off.

"We better get going too." Zack said, walking back towards Sam's house. "Saturday morning cartoons man, I gotta get up early." Zack joked.

"Okay, I'm comin'." He said to him. He turned back towards Sam's parents.

"Thanks again for dinner, it was great." Freddy said. Mr. and Mrs. Morton smiled.

"No problem Freddy." Mr. Morton told him. "It was great having you two here." He said.

Mr. and Mrs. Morton began to turn around to go back inside. "Goodnight boys, we'll see you two later." She told them and waved them goodnight.

"See ya Jess." Zack said from across the lawn.

"Night Zack. See ya Freddy." Jesse said, following his parents.

"Bye Jesse." Freddy said to him. He turned to Sam and smiled. "I'm glad everything went okay." He told her.

"Me too." She said. It was getting cold and Zack started to complain.

"C'mon Freddy!" Zack said, already in front of the next house. Freddy turned around to see Zack and gave in.

"Okay, I'm comin'." He said. "Goodnight Sam." He said turning around to see her.

"Bye Freddy." She said and they both turned around to go back to their own houses.

Sam really did think that everyone had a good time. Her parents seemed to like Dewey; from his great knowledge of classic rock music to his quirky tendencies which made him a great person to know. She hoped that her future with the band would go okay, and that she'd do okay as a singer. She went to bed with no trouble at all. She simply just thought of how good these next few months would be. She looked forward to her first official band practice tomorrow, hopefully it'd be the start of a great adventure.


	9. Movin' Right Along

Chapter 8

The next day was the bands first practice with Sam. Everyone was excited to start working, especially Sam. Everyone arrived at Dewey's place around the same time and were ready to start making some music. But Summer had different plans than everyone else.

"Okay guys." She said calling in their attention. "Now first, welcome Sam to our first band practice. You are officially a member of the School of Rock." She smiled and everyone cheered.

"Thanks Summer." She replied.

Summer took hold of her notebook she carried with her. "I know that you guys would want to start playing already." She said as everyone agreed with her. "But…" she began. "We can't get started because we need to go over this competition in a couple months. And after that we'll contribute our ideas to some songs. That's when Tomika and Sam," she pointed to the two of them. "You two should brainstorm how to write those songs. Then when they're done the rest of you will have to talk it over with them about the music." She said as everyone started to complain.

"Ah man you serious?" Zack whined.

"That'll take forever!" Katie exclaimed.

Lawrence planted his head in his two hands perched up on his knees. "I admit, I was also looking forward to playing some things today." He said, disappointed.

"Do we gotta do it this way?" Tomika asked, turning around to Dewey who was sitting in the back of them.

Dewey nodded. "I'm sorry guys, I wanted to rock out today too." He said, moving to the front of the group. "But Summer did tell me about all of this and it makes sense to do it her way." He said, standing next to Summer. The whole group moaned at Dewey's agreement to Summer's plans.

"So how long will all this take?" Freddy asked. "Before we can start to play?"

"Well, if we go along schedule," Summer said, picking up her planner and rummaging through some pages. "I think that it should take us about…" she paused and looked at her planner. "3 or 4 rehearsal times." She said as everyone went into shock.

"What!" Katie yelled.

"Man, that's like forever!" Zack said loudly.

"And we'd probably end up talking about all this as it gets closer to the performance too." Summer told them, adding on more disappointment to the group.

Freddy ran both hands through his hair and lifted his head up. "Well, so what do we gotta do first?" He said, trying to get the ball rolling.

Summer smiled at the fact that at least one of them didn't hate her for what she was doing. "Okay, I made a PowerPoint to show you guys all the things we need to know about this gig." She said. Lawrence and Dewey helped her hook up laptop to a screen projector Dewey used a few years back at a party. He borrowed it from a school Ned was working at, and never made time to take it back. Lawrence positioned the projector so that it would be shown on a blank wall opposite of the couch everyone was huddled around. Sam, Zack and Freddy sat on the floor. Katie, and Tomika saved a seat on the couch for Lawrence, and Dewey grabbed a chair and sat next to them. Summer closed the blinds and turned off the lights so they'd see the screen better.

"Okay." She said as Dewey adjusted the projector. "So first of all, I guess telling you guys the name of the competition would help." She said, pressing a button on the controller for the projector. "The competition in which we'll be competing in is called 'Young Artists of Today'." She told them. A picture appeared on the wall of building with big flashy letters reading 'Muzic Stashun'. (Music Station). At the top of the slide read the title of the competition. Summer turned to the group to hear some 'oohs' and 'awes' about what the place looked like.

"Where is it?" Katie asked.

"Good question." Summer replied and pushed another button on the control. The next slide that was shown just had words on it. "This is going to take place in New York." Summer said as everyone reacted positively.

"Wow, New York?" Tomika said. "I've never been there." She said happily.

Zack sat up straight. "You mean New York City, New York?" he asked Summer. Summer nodded and everyone was excited.

Summer continued to tell them about the performance. "We have a dress rehearsal up there on December 20th, that's a Monday. And our actual performance is on December 25th." She slurred her words together.

"What?" Zack said, starting the commotion in the room.

"You mean we're gonna be up there in New York on Christmas?" Lawrence asked a bit worried.

Dewey stood up from his chair as more mumbling and comments were said. "Okay guys, hold up." He said raising his hands. "Let Summer finish explaining. I'm sure she knows what she's talking about." He said and turned to Summer. "You're sure you know what you're talking about right?" he asked her. Summer replied by simply giving him a 'death' glare. "Okay, okay, I got it." He said returning to his seat.

"I know you guys probably don't wanna miss Christmas and spend it in New York." Summer told them. "But here's the thing: the competition is Christmas night!" she smiled. There was a sense of ease that went around the room. "So you guys can spend Christmas morning with your families and all." She said. "But we'd have to start packing up our stuff and drive to New York in the early afternoon. It'll take us a couple of hours to get to New York City for our competition." Summer said.

"So we'd still be able to spend Christmas morning with our families?" Zack asked for reassurance.

Summer nodded. "Yep, we'd all have family time on Christmas." She said.

Summer continued to tell them more about what they'd be doing there at the competition and how they'd be judged. Since it was a contest against people their age, they all had a pretty good feeling that they'd do well. Since their band started in elementary school and they kept on playing through middle and high school, they've had the right amount of experience to take on this competition. Everyone except Sam felt this confidence when Summer told them about it.

Freddy noticed the worried look that Sam had. "Don't worry, you'll do fine." He said smiling at her. "It's just one song, we'll do fine." He said. She smiled at him for being the only one that noticed she was feeling uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Summer continued telling them more about the competition and what requirements they had to meet.

"So we have to send in an audition tape first?" Lawrence asked Summer.

"Yep, which means the sooner we get to work, the better chances we have. Although they don't do the first come first serve thing, the sooner we send a tape in it shows that we're serious about it, we can get things done on time." She told them hitting a fist into the palm of her hand for emphasis.

"And what if we make it past the auditions?" Katie asked.

"Then we'd have to go up to New York for a dress rehearsal with all the other bands up there too. That'll be on December 20th, Monday. We'd already be out of school for break."

"What's the dress rehearsal for?" Zack said.

"That's so we get a feel for the stage and know our surroundings. So when we actually go up there on Christmas day, we'll be familiar with the area." She told them. "Oh and don't worry, the other bands won't be able to listen in our practice either." She said when she saw Lawrence's hand go up. He nodded and smiled at her for answering his question before he asked it.

Dewey ordered pizza for lunch while Summer continued to talk about the Young Artist of Today competition. When the pizza arrived they put the TV on and watched VH1. They all needed a break from all this information Summer was throwing at them.

"Tell me this," Zack said as he put down his plate with his pizza. "Who in the world came up with MTV?" He asked gesturing with his hands.

Katie nodded to his comment. "Seriously, they basically only have reality TV on it now, not that it's not fun to laugh at it." She said, chuckling to herself.

"Man, tell me about it!" Dewey cried. "Damn, I remember when MTV first came out, it blew my mind that people actually bought into this thing." He said, obviously not in favor of MTV. "You guys know the first thing they played on MTV?" He asked them. All of them shook their heads or replied with "No", all except Sam.

"Uh… "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, right?" She said, putting the cap back on the liter of Pepsi and walked back towards the group. Everyone turned around to look a her, surprised she knew the answer.

"Wow, how'd you know that?" Dewey asked her.

"My mom listens to that music. I like it too, it's oddly catchy music." She laughed.

Katie nodded. "Cool Sam, you're full of surprises. That's cool." She smiled then turned to Freddy. "Don't _you_ just love surprises Spazzy?" Katie teased, emphasizing the word 'you'.

"Shut up." He mumbled to her so that Sam wouldn't hear, even though she did. Sam smiled to herself and lifted her head to watch some TV.

After lunch Summer spent another hour and a half explaining to them more details about the gig. In no time it was already 2:00, and practice was officially over. Everyone was glad that they were done for the day, even though they didn't really 'practice', it was still tiring listening to Summer for almost 4 hours. Before leaving Dewey's place they all decided to go down to Danny's just to hang out for a while before they all headed home. Lawrence and Summer drove everyone to Danny's.

After spending about 2 hours down at Danny's, everyone wanted to head on home. Zack and Freddy were going to walk home from there and they asked Sam if she wanted to go along with them. Sam agreed to walking home with them, but stopped to have one last conversation with Tomika before they all left.

"So you're gonna come over tomorrow right?" Sam asked her again.

"Yep." She nodded her head. "I'll call you tonight to find out what time I can come over." Tomika said.

"Okay, see ya tomorrow." Sam said, waving goodbye to everyone as they got into their cars. She turned around to head on home with Zack and Freddy. It was quite a walk back home for all of them, but they didn't mind it. Zack didn't want to get home to do any of his homework, Sam could wait to finish cleaning her room, and Freddy was afraid he'd have to help make dinner. They all took their time walking home, which meant they had enough time just to catch up on what's been going on with all of them.

"So what are you guys getting in AP U.S. History?" Zack asked. He felt very confident that he'd be getting the highest grade out of the three of them, or at least he'd beat Freddy.

"B-." Freddy stated. "I mean we've only had a couple of assignments, but that first quiz I took didn't turn out too well." He said.

Zack looked at Sam and asked her the same thing. "What about you Sam?" He was curious if those rumors were going to be proven true.

"Oh, uh, just ya know," she said. "An A." She slurred together.

Zack dropped his shoulders in disappointment. "Ah man, an A!" he said. "Damn, I'm getting an A-." He said with a sad look.

Sam put her hand on his shoulder to try to make him feel better. "Zack, grades don't really matter. That's just a sign for what a teacher thinks of your work. I'm sure you'll end the year with an A, it's still the beginning of the year anyway." She smiled.

"Yeah man," Freddy added in. "You always do good in socials studies classes like this. Don't worry, you'll do fine." He reassured him.

"Well, I guess. It is the beginning of the school year." He sounded more confident about raising his grade than any other time Freddy had heard him talk about his grades.

"And you can raise your grade to an A too!" Sam exclaimed now putting her hand on Freddy's shoulder.

"With some tutoring I might." Freddy grinned, giving some hints to Sam.

Sam caught on quite quickly to what Freddy implied. "Anytime." She smiled.

"All of us will do great this year!" Zack said happily.

"We sure will." Sam said and moved her hands to put her arms around the both of them. In return both Freddy and Zack put their arms around Sam and the three of them walked on by like they were three best friends that have known each other forever.


End file.
